[No pic- I don't have any good smilng pictures, as I'm usually too busy enjoying his cuteness!]
Three weeks since Operation Fix My Baby truly kicked off and life with Chip is very similar, but also totally different.
It seems that something has worked. We may never know whether it was eliminating dairy, visiting the osteo, baby massage, or just my baby growing 3 weeks older. But he’s a changed boy.
He’s burping like a champ, and he barely gets sore tummies any more. And when he does, they’re nowhere near as bad, and they go away much more quickly. We had a bit of the old wind when we visited my folks over Easter, but it went away after that (mostly… he’s still not a baby you can just burp and leave). Last night he had a particularly windy night feed- he was up, down, fed, burped, changed, own, re-burped and down within an hour. Not all that long ago, it was 2.5.
He's actually HAPPY a lot of the time, and when he grizzles it's often something simple to fix, like "my dummy's come out", "my Mum's not here", "my nappy needs changing." He smiles and coos and chats away. He's interested in his toys, he's chortling through long massages, and he loves "boogying" with his Dad to 80s and 90s pop hits.
Getting rid of Reducing his digestive troubles has shown us so much about his personality, and thrown up new challenges and it seems our boy will probably not be "easy" for quite some time, if ever. He's just not one of those chillaxed, go with the flow babies who play happily on the floor during coffee group. Every single person who has ever met him comments on his alertness, his responsiveness, his wise face. We're super proud of that- what Type A lawyers wouldn't want to think their baby was the smartest on the block?
But it does come at a price, for him and for us, and requires a bit of extra thought sometimes. First, he really struggles to sleep during the day- first it's serious FOMO, which turns into stressed out overtiredness. During the day, it’s white noise, never looking at him, rocking, rocking, rocking, and sleeping in the hammock. Oh, and a super duper straitjacket swaddle. At night? Feed, burp, dummy, down. He sometimes wears a lighter, arms up swaddle. But when he pees in everything, we just put him in a nightgown and it’s much the same! Next, too much going on freaks him the hell out. He was great with some visitors over the weekend, but hated hosting coffee group today. I can sometimes get away with some TV while I feed, but I can see when he's stressed and distracted, and need to cut out some distractions. We're likely to be moved into a separate room if I go back to Family Centre, so he can feed without being too overwhelmed.
We're getting better and better with him, and learning more about him each day. And in case it sounds like I'm moaning, I'm not- I'm just finding this process fascinating. Like peeling an onion! I'm glad to have mostly stripped the "wind" layer away, and to be able to work on the "overstimulated" layer! And, as I said to a woman from my Feb babies group this evening, we're absolutely mad about his personality, and we'd take our little chatty Chip any day, tears and all!
Really, I think it's fair to say that Operation: Fix My Baby is pretty much over. Time to get on with plain ol' loving him now!
Three weeks since Operation Fix My Baby truly kicked off and life with Chip is very similar, but also totally different.
It seems that something has worked. We may never know whether it was eliminating dairy, visiting the osteo, baby massage, or just my baby growing 3 weeks older. But he’s a changed boy.
He’s burping like a champ, and he barely gets sore tummies any more. And when he does, they’re nowhere near as bad, and they go away much more quickly. We had a bit of the old wind when we visited my folks over Easter, but it went away after that (mostly… he’s still not a baby you can just burp and leave). Last night he had a particularly windy night feed- he was up, down, fed, burped, changed, own, re-burped and down within an hour. Not all that long ago, it was 2.5.
He's actually HAPPY a lot of the time, and when he grizzles it's often something simple to fix, like "my dummy's come out", "my Mum's not here", "my nappy needs changing." He smiles and coos and chats away. He's interested in his toys, he's chortling through long massages, and he loves "boogying" with his Dad to 80s and 90s pop hits.
But it does come at a price, for him and for us, and requires a bit of extra thought sometimes. First, he really struggles to sleep during the day- first it's serious FOMO, which turns into stressed out overtiredness. During the day, it’s white noise, never looking at him, rocking, rocking, rocking, and sleeping in the hammock. Oh, and a super duper straitjacket swaddle. At night? Feed, burp, dummy, down. He sometimes wears a lighter, arms up swaddle. But when he pees in everything, we just put him in a nightgown and it’s much the same! Next, too much going on freaks him the hell out. He was great with some visitors over the weekend, but hated hosting coffee group today. I can sometimes get away with some TV while I feed, but I can see when he's stressed and distracted, and need to cut out some distractions. We're likely to be moved into a separate room if I go back to Family Centre, so he can feed without being too overwhelmed.
We're getting better and better with him, and learning more about him each day. And in case it sounds like I'm moaning, I'm not- I'm just finding this process fascinating. Like peeling an onion! I'm glad to have mostly stripped the "wind" layer away, and to be able to work on the "overstimulated" layer! And, as I said to a woman from my Feb babies group this evening, we're absolutely mad about his personality, and we'd take our little chatty Chip any day, tears and all!
Really, I think it's fair to say that Operation: Fix My Baby is pretty much over. Time to get on with plain ol' loving him now!
5 comments:
he sounds like a little super star to me!
and I really think not enough attention is given to over stimulation. I think Miss C struggles with it a fair bit too!
Aw, whatever it is that caused the change, I'm glad things are getting a bit easier! I think having a baby must be the hugest learning curve a parent ever goes through, and I think you're doing an amazing job.
Brilliant. Absolutely fascinating, and a very lawyerly approach too :-) Delighted to hear Chip is vastly improved and that you can start to enjoy being a Mum a bit more. Even on bad days.
Time for another update? Hope you and Chip are doing well.
Chip is so cute and I'm glad that he is feeling better. So happy that operation fix my baby is over and you can enjoy a more stressless motherhood :)
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